Folding overhead door



M. MATTSON FOLDING OVERHEAD DOOR Nov. 15, 1949 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Feb. 6, 1948 INVENTOR.

Patented Nov. 15, 1949 UNITED: STATES PATENT OFFICE FOLDING- OVERHEAD noon Matt Mattson, Hibbing, Minn.- Application February 6, 1948, Serial-No. 6,759

. which is relatively inexpensive;

Another object is to so arrangethe operating mechanism of the door that very little effort is required to either open or close same,

Another object is to'provide an efficient looking arrangement for the door. H

Other objects and advantages will appear as the description of the invention proceeds.

In the accompanying drawing forminga part of this application:

. Fig. l is a perspective view of an overhead door constructed in accordance with the invention showing the inner side thereof.

Fig. 2 is a broken fragmentalplan view-of the door locking mechanism and a portion of the'operating mechanism. 3 I N Fig. 3 is a sectional view on the line 3 3 Fig. 2.

Fig. 4 is a perspective View of the combined latch and lock lever.

Fig. 5 is a fragmentalperspective view of the spring controlled end of the doors operating mechanism.

Fig. 6 is a perspective view showing the. attachment of the lifting. arm or lever to the upper section of the door Y v Fig. '7 is a sectional view. of' a portion of the mechanism shown in Fig. 6 to illustrate the roller on which the lifting lever is carried;

In the drawing, the reference numerals l'l indicate the sideframe members of a common garage door opening.

The instant door whichis installed to close the above mentioned opening. is made in two substantially equal parts,.the upper section 2 and the lower section 3, the same being hingedly united along their abutting edges,lthe point or bend or pivot being on the outer side ofthe door, the door being adapted to be folded upwardly on the inside of the garage orbuilding. The upper section 2 of the door is hingedly installed on the upper transverse member of the door frame; (not shown) as by the hinges t me complete the 2 Claims. (01. 160-189) hinged installation of the-door oversthe opening.

To facilitate the opening and closing of the door and to insure its remaining in open orclosed position as desired I have; installed a weight 5 and a contractile-spring-G', the-weight 5isins'trumental in providing ease of upward motion for the lower section-30fthe-door and th'e-spririgfi is instrumental in aiding the upward movement of the upper section of the door, however, it is deemed that in the cooperative use of the two, each will aid in the movement of both sections.

The lifting mechanism Which is Weight oper- 2' ated comprises a shaft T which is fotatably mounted at each end thereof in a bearing 8, the latter beingv supported on a suitable bracket [0 to properly position the shaft 7' to permit of the rotation of the three pulleys or drums H, [2, and i3 which are fixed on the's'h'aft torotate'therewith, one of the pulleys being on one end of the shaft and two of same on the other end thereof, one on either side of the bearing 8. The outer drum II is the windingdrum or driving drum for the'sha'ft l, the same having wound thereon a length of rope or cable [4 at the endof which the weight 5 is carried to cause the shaft 1 to be rotated by the pull of the weight 5 aroundthe drum H.

A length of cable It is wound on each of the pulleys It and I 3; but in a reverse direction to the winding on the drum ll thus, when the drum ii is being rotated by the downward pull of the weight 5, the winding of thedrums I 2 and I3 will be such as to tend to wind morecable or rope thereon. The end of the cables I5'of each drum I 2 and I3 is attached to the extreme'low'er corners of the bottom section of the door by means of a rotatable or oscillatory lug I61 as shown in Figs. 2 and 3, thereby, upward stress is applied to the door by the weight 5 in the manner above pointed out. Of course, it is deemed apparent that the size of the weight imay' be adjusted to give the desired amount of lift or upward stress to the door. 7

To facilitate the upward folding of the door sections and to guide same' as they travel upwardly, a' track ll, preferably a strip of metal, is fixed along the entire edge of the side frames ll adjacent the door opening, and a guide I8, also of metal; is installed parallel to and spaced a suitable distance from the track ll, see'Fig. 2.

A roller l9 is rotatably carried adjacent the lower corners of the lower section 3 of the door and is adapted to'tr'avel' or ride intermediate-of the track I! and the guide l8's'0 that the lower edge of'the'do'or is maintained'or heldinposition to travel'upwa'rdly in a vertical plane only,*while the doorsections are hinged inwardiyand upwardly at the center of the door, see the' dotted lines, Fig. 1. V

Tofurther facilitate the operation'of the; doors, means is provided toapply inward and upward stress on the lower end of the upper section of the door. The said means omprises a, shaft-2'0 which" runs parallel-to the shaft 'l' and-is journalled at each end' in a suitablehearing which is supported on the bracket F9- extendingfrom the respective side-framesi- -"l'seeFigb'.

One end of theshaft- 2ti extends-through the bearing and has a crank arm 2| extending at substantially a right angle thereto, which is normally held in substantially vertical position when the door is closed. To the outer end of the arm 2| a U-shaped linl; member 22 is pivotally secured,

and a contractile spring 6 is carried intermediate of the link 22 and a, bracket 24 which is fixed to the adjacent side frame I a suitable distance from the link 22 to provide proper tension on the crank arm by the spring.

A relatively stiff lever 25 is fixed at each end of the shaft inwardly of its bearings, the levers extending downwardly and being opposed to but not necessarily alined with the crank arm 2|. These levers are, preferably, of a length to reach a point on the upper door section at least beyond the center thereof where an elongated bracketlike slide or guide 26 is installed on the upper section of the door substantially as shown in the drawings, Fig. 1. The main body portion of the guide 26 is spaced from the door somewhat so that a roller 21 may be operated on the inner side of same, said roller being carried at the outer end of the lever as by the bracket 28 fixed thereto.

With the lever 25 thus mounted, the stress of the spring 6 tends to raise the lower end of the upper section 2 of the door as is readily seen from the drawings. When the door is moved upwardly, the lower end of the lever 25 pulls upwardly on the brackets 26 which are fixed to the door section 2 by means of the roller 21 on the inner side thereof, and as the door moves upwardly the arm is moved downwardly on the bracket 26 as shown in dotted lines Fig. 6, the roller permitting free movement thereof, due to the different pivot points of the lever and the door section.

It is deemed apparent from the above that by properly adjusting the tension of the spring 6 and the size of the weight 5, very little effort will be required to either raise or lower the door.

When the door is in raised or uppermost folded position, the same may be pulled down by means of a suitable foldable handle or rope 29 secured to the bottom of the door.

In raising the door from the inside and inward pull on the handle 30 is usually sufficient to send the door into folded uppermost position. When opening the door from the outside it is only necessary to push inwardly on the door adjacent the hinged connection of the two sections.

A novel means for locking the door in closed position is illustrated in Figs. 2, 3 and 4 of the drawing wherein 3| indicates the latch lever which is operated by means of either the inner knob or handle 32 or the outer handle 33, the latter being united by a square shaft which extends L through the square opening 34 in the lever 3|.

When in locked or closed position the extension or latch portion 35 on one end of the lever 3| engages the inner side of the track guide It? and thereby prevents the door folding inwardly, there being another extension 36 at the opposite end of the lever 3| which has an operating rod 31 pivotally attached thereto which is reciprocated by the turning of the lever 3| and which may be either engaged beneath the guide I8 on the opposite side of the door or disengaged therefrom by turning of either of the handles 32 and 33, thereby, the door may be held in closed position as desired.

The locking means for the door comprises any suitable locking device 38 which has provisions for being unlocked and the bold 39 withdrawn by a key 40 on the outside and a knob 4| on the inside for withdrawing the bolt. In the instant case, the

latch lever 3| has a notch 42 on its upper edge into which the bolt 39 extends when the lever 3| is in position to hold the door closed, the bolt being spring biased to outward position, whereby the latch lever 3| may not be operated when the bolt is in extended position.

When the lever 3| is turned so as to permit the door to be folded upwardly (after the bolt has been withdrawn), the bolt 39 is held inwardly as by the angular projection 43 on the lever 3| and the bolt automatically locks the lever 3| in closed position as soon as it is turned to that position, as is apparent from the drawings.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim is:

1. A door within a frame, said door bein adapted to be folded upwardly when open comprising an upper and a lower door section, said sections being hingedly united along adjacent horizontal edges, said upper section being hingedly connected to the upper transverse member of said frame, and means for expediting the opening and closing of said door comprising a pair of shafts journalled adjacent the top of said frame, one of said shafts having a lever secured to the upper section of said door and spring means for applying upward stress to said lever and said door section, and the other of said shafts having a plurality of drums fixed thereto, one of said drums having a weighted cable wrapped thereon to tend to rotate said shaft, and another of said drums having a cable wound thereon in a direction opposite to that of said first mentioned cable, said last mentioned cable being secured to the lower edge of said bottom door section to apply upward stress thereto.

2. A door within a door frame, said door being adapted to be folded upwardly when open comprising an upper and a lower door section, said sections being hingedly united along adjacent horizontal edges, said upper section being hingedly connected to the upper transverse member of said door frame, and means for expediting the opening and closing of said door comprising a pair of shafts journalled adjacent the top of said frame, one of said shafts having a lever secured thereto and to a portion of said upper door section, a crank arm on said shaft, and a spring fixed at one end to said crank arm and at the other end to said frame for applying upward stress to said upper door section by means of said lever, and the other of said shafts having a plurality of drums fixed thereto, a cable wound on one of said drums and having a weight fixed thereto, and a second cable wound on another of said drums in a direction opposite to said first cable, the free end of said second cable being secured to the bottom of said lower door section.

MATT MATTSON.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,191,929 Prescott July 18, 1916 1,629,973 Rush et a1 May 24, 1927 2,041,410 Goodman May 19, 1936 2,203,264 Horstman June 4, 1940 

